“Hit & Run” is the kind of remedial Quentin Tarantino that was getting made by the score in the years immediately after the 1994 release of “Pulp Fiction.”

That's not as insulting as it sounds. We could probably use more clever writing and lively action on a tight shooting schedule and scant budget. You start to see things such as politically incorrect dialogue and real car wrecks — no time or money for CGI when your star, director, writer and editor are all the same person.

That would be Dax Shepard, a comedic actor who historically is often the best thing in a bad movie. Shepard is Charlie Bronson, a talented driver in witness protection, trying to keep a good thing going with girlfriend Annie (Kristen Bell). When Annie gets a dream job in Los Angeles, Charlie decides to follow, as a growing cast of cops, robbers and other meddlers get in their way.

Shepard is an engaging actor who looks convincing behind the wheel. But he's arguably strongest as a writer here, offering takes on car culture, gay dating apps and the casual use of homophobic slurs. When the characters are sitting around talking, the film cruises along nicely.

Shepard's editing and direction, by contrast, are held together with baling wire and paper clips. Pretty much everything shot by Shepard and co-director David Palmer looks as if it was done in one take. “Hit & Run” is closest in tone to the Tarantino-penned “True Romance,” but it lacks that movie's menace. It's hard to take anything too seriously when Tom Arnold shows up every few scenes, handling his gun like Barney Fife while sounding as if he's channeling “Lethal Weapon II” Joe Pesci.

Clearly some favors were called in for this film, which features a glimpse of Jason Bateman, and Bradley Cooper in a supporting role as bad guy Alex Dmitri. He's hard to recognize in dreadlocks and a track suit (and you may spend most of the movie mistakenly thinking he's Seth Green), but that's still a pretty big name for an independently financed movie coming out in late August.

Kristin Chenoweth owns all of her scenes as Annie's diminutive but foul-mouthed community college boss. Directors who don't have Jane Lynch money should consider Chenoweth as a capable substitute.

But the real star is Shepard's 1967 Lincoln Continental, a car so boss its desecration is arguably the emotional core of the movie. The makers of “Hit & Run” didn't have the time or resources to choreograph very elaborate chases. But as we already learned in “Dazed and Confused,” there's still no special effect that can match a rumbling American motor while Aerosmith's “Sweet Emotion” plays in the background.